Jing Wang (China), is working with the Marketing and Online Resources publishing team, dealing with marketing analysis, rights licensing and worldwide co-publishing partners. Those include some British companies such as OUP and Palgrave Macmillan. Jing interprets the internship as ‘a great opportunity to know the World Bank working system and its projects, and to let the world know more about the World Bank.' Everyday she feels very glad when stepping into the beautiful office building: ‘Working at the World Bank signifies that you are going to do something meaningful and helpful for the people in the world, especially those living in poor countries.'

Nina Schipper (Brazil), has been working with the Acquisitions team, and so far has been involved in the preparation of leading publications such as the World Development Report, the Annual Report, and the youth guide Getting to Know the World Bank. She has also been participating in the e-library project, which makes available in full text, for readers everywhere, the contents of the World Bank's books and reports. Nina commented that: ‘Learning about the serious yet creative way the World Bank disseminates the knowledge on development that is produced here, either through printed books or online resources, is an important step in my career.'

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10 Aug 2006 around 11am

The Publishers Association’s (PA) Textbook Action Group has agreed to provide funding for the establishment of a research network by the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies (Adrian Bullock and Dr Jane Potter) into what motivates students today and, in particular, how they use textbooks and other learning resources, such as the internet, on-line journals, and VLEs, when they study.

Rachel Craven's MA dissertation, E-volution and Revolution: Internet Marketing in English Language Publishing has been published as a Print on Demand (POD) book.

Rachel's dissertation was chosen for the inaugural Lightning Source Dissertation Award. E-volution and Revolution has been produced as a POD title by Lightning Source, and published by the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies. The book analyses the importance of Internet marketing for English Language Teaching (ELT) publishing by examining the relationship between the marketer, the consumer, and the Internet.

Journalist Tracy Hofman recently featured comments from Claire Squires, lecturer in Publishing, in an online article about blogging.

In the article, Squires is quoted by Hofman on the blogging phenomenon, saying that, 'We are using written language far more than we did ten years ago, and this has resulted in a vibrant reading and writing culture.' Hofman is less positive, arguing that the 'self-expression frenzy' is the result of a craving for 'airtime in a frenetic world where we feel increasingly alienated'.

Squires also commented on the trend for celebrity novels, with Katie Price (aka Jordan)'s novel Angel currently high in the bestseller lists. Hofman writes, 'Now call me churlish, but why claim to be a writer if you can't actually write?' Squires responded to Hofman's question by arguing that 'People want to write ... because people see authorship as something to aspire to.'

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01 Aug 2006 around 10am

Dr Mohini Chandra has been awarded £4500 by the Arts Council for a project entitled ‘Imaginary Edens'. The work will explore diaspora and migrant experience through photography, collage and installation media. Lifesize photographic backdrops from the Indian diaspora will be combined with family photographs to create fantastic 'imagined' landscapes. The funding will support the research and development of a major series of works for exhibition in 2007/8.

Mohini is an artist and researcher whose work is concerned with issues of memory, time and geographic displacement as expressed through the 'everyday' photography of diaspora families. She regularly exhibits at a range of international and national venues and has sucessfully completed a number of publications and site specific projects.

‘Imaginary Edens' will have relevance to any group of people who have experienced migration or diaspora, whatever their cultural background.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 28 Jul 2006 around 12pm

Professor Steve King (History) has been awarded a grant of £2060 by the British Academy for a project entitled ‘The economics of overseeing, 1750-1834'. The work aims to explore the local operation of the Old Poor Law in England, and will lay the foundations for a workshop on the history of welfare provision as well as an application to the ESRC for a more substantial project. He has also won £380 from the Economic History Society to support his one-day conference on The Clothing of the Poor 1650-1900: Multi-disciplinary Perspectives (April 2007). This is in addition to funding (£200) already secured from the Royal Historical Society.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 28 Jul 2006 around 8am

Judging for this year’s British Book Design and Production Awards took place at the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies at Oxford Brookes University on 10 and 11 July.
The Awards, now in their fifth year, are sponsored jointly by the British Printing Industries Federation, the Publishers’ Association, and Oxford Brookes University, and attracted a healthy level of entry with nearly 300 entries from some 70 companies – printers, publishers, and binders alike – with numbers fairly evenly balanced between those submitting for the first time, and those submitting for the second, third or even fifth time.

The School of Arts and Humanities is delighted to announce that Dr Alberto Mira has been awarded a grant of £18,435 under the AHRC Research Leave scheme. The award will enable him to complete work on a book entitled Film Cultures and Gay Communities in Spain 1960-1980. This volume will assess the impact of film culture for the Spanish gay communities from the latter phase of Francoism in the early 1960s until the end of legal prohibition in the early 1980s. These dates mark a critical period for Spanish homosexuals, who went from a situation of illegality to acceptance. The book will build on the starting point that available cultural discourse (and cinema in particular) was part of the process of finding a sense of identity (definitely individual, perhaps social). Given this project is about responses to film and creation of cultural strategies through film, a number of interviews will be held with individuals living in large urban centres, addressing issues such as cinema going and socialising through film, films as examples of reality and films as individual fantasies.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 25 Jul 2006 around 11am

SHARP (the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing) holds an annual international conference, this year in The Hague and Leiden, in The Netherlands. Claire presented a paper on 'Marketing Literature, Making Value: The Literary Marketplace and Crossover Fiction in the UK in the 1990s and 2000s', while Jane spoke about 'A Record of Wartime Publishing: The Bookman, 1914-1918'. Both lecturers also chaired other panel sessions during the three and a half-day conference.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 16 Jul 2006 around 4pm

Two years ago, Sally returned to University of Leicester to complete a part time Master’s degree course in Museum Studies. Her dissertation, submitted in 2005, examined publishing by museums in the UK and brought her interests in collections, exhibitions and their catalogues. Sally is following up this research with PhD studies that will look in more detail at the process of producing books in the museum environment.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 13 Jul 2006 around 12pm